Have you ever felt bugged-up with the Start-up and Shutdown jingle of Windows? If yes, here is the solution. You can change Windows startup and shutdown sounds from Windows Settings. You can also use your favorite voice or music or dialogue as your PC’s shutdown and startup. Matrix or Terminator dialogues sound good?
How to Change Windows Startup and Shutdown Sounds
Starting from Windows 8, and now in Windows 10, you cannot set the startup and shutdown sounds, aka Logon and Logoff sound in Windows. However, a simple registry change allows you to enable it.
Enable Windows Logon and Logoff Settings in Windows 10
- Open Registry Editor by typing “Regedit” in the Run prompt (Win +R) followed by pressing the Enter key
- Navigate to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\AppEvents\EventLabels\
- Locate these two keys (folders)
- WindowsLogon
- WindowsLogoff
- Inside each of these keys, there is a Dword with name ExcludeFromCPL
- Double click to open it, and change the value from 1 to 0
- Close and exit
Note: Make sure to create a restore point.
Steps to Change Windows Startup and Shutdown Sounds
- Open Run prompt (Win + R) then type control and press the Enter key.
- It will open the classic Control Panel
- Change View to Large icons by clicking on the top right option in the window
- Find Sound option, and click to open
- Switch to Sounds tab and locate Windows logoff and logon
- For each of them, you can either choose from the sounds dropdown or browse, and select audio you like.
- Make sure to preview by clicking on the Test button
Any sound setting you modify will be marked by a change in the icon of sound from white to yellow.
Windows Sounds aren’t accessible anymore, but if you still love to try it, here is how you can do it. I remember installing themes, which could change it, add dialogues as startup, logoff sound, and they sure were fun.
Cant hear Windows Logon or Logoff Sound?
After Microsoft introduced FastBoot in Windows 10, I have noticed that these sounds dont work as expected. However, if I do a hard reboot, they work fine. I am guessing its either a bug or thats how it works
How to change Windows XP Startup and Shutdown Sounds
Step 1: Choose a track
Choose the track which you want to play at start-up and shutdown jingles. Limitations are
- It should be in the WAV format.
- The size of the file should not be large, prefer keeping them within 1 Mb. Otherwise, your startup will take a bit longer.
If the file you want to make your start-up or shutdown is not in WAV format, you can easily convert them using Jet Audio 7, or any other converter.
Step 2: Rename files
Now rename these files as “Windows XP Startup.WAV” and “Windows XP Shutdown.WAV,” respectively.
Step 3: Open Media Folder
Now Go to “C:\WINDOWS\MEDIA,” here you will find files “Windows XP Startup.WAV” and “Windows XP Shutdown.WAV,” move them to some other locations, this step is required for, in case you need to revert these sounds, else you can ignore this step.
Step 4: Replace Original Files.
Now the files you have chosen and renamed, just copy-paste or cut-paste them in “C:\WINDOWS\MEDIA,” here you go, now you can enjoy the new Start-up and shutdown.
I hope the tutorial was easy to follow, and you were able to change Windows Startup and Shutdown Sounds in Windows 10.
